Fabiana

A genus of some twenty-five species of heath-like shrubs, all natives of South America, mostly in temperate parts. It was named in honour of Francisco Fabian y Fuero of Valencia, a patron of botanists, who died in 1801. The genus is allied to Cestrum and Nicotiana and is characterised by the solitary tubular flowers with five equal included stamens, all of them fertile, and the capsular fruits. Its nearest relative, however, is the interesting but little-known genus Benthamiella, with fifteen species of mat- or cushion-plants found in Argentina in the southern Andes and in the Patagonian steppe.